When British firefighters saved 18 piglets from a fire six months ago, it turned out to be a temporary reprieve for the baby pigs.
When British firefighters saved 18 piglets from a fire six months ago, it turned out to be a temporary reprieve for the baby pigs.
They were served up in a tasty meal for their rescuers, who received the sausages from grateful owners of the farm in Wiltshire.
“This is just what we do — we are not an animal sanctuary, ” farmer Rachel Rivers told the Guardian . “We give the pigs the best opportunity and the best life they could have for six months.”
The firefighters in Pewsey happily took the sausages and enjoyed a barbecue meal. Not everyone was thrilled, though.
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“These poor piglets were no better off for escaping the fire only to be put back into it six months later after being subjected to the horrifying experience of the abattoir, ” said Mimi Bekhechi, PETA’s Director of International Programmes.
“When the emergency services rescue animals, PETA thanks them with vegan chocolates, not the animals’ barbecued flesh, ” she said in the statement. “We’ll be sending Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service packs of Linda McCartney vegan sausages so that they can see how easy it is to truly be heroes for pigs — by sparing them all suffering.”
The meaty present received some criticism on social media as well. One person wrote, “what’s wrong with a box of roses?” according to the Guardian.
“What a dreadful story. Lovely that they saved the pigs but why publish their demise? Grim, ” wrote another user, the newspaper reported.
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The firefighters posted a photo of their cooked reward on social media, but later removed it.
Rivers admitted that “I’m sure vegetarians will hate this, ” but also emphasized to the BBC that she gave the piglets “the best quality of life I could ever give until the time they go to slaughter and they go into the food chain.”
“An inevitable part of farming is the death of an animal which gives us the food to eat, ” farm owner Canon Gerald Osbourne told BBC News.
The piglets were just two weeks old when they were saved by the firefighters, according to the Guardian. “At the time I told them I would give them the sausages, ” Rivers told the Guardian.
